Origin

Due to a saltation, Mutants, or Homo superior, are born with superhuman abilities which generally manifest themselves at puberty. Mutants are often hated and feared by other humans because they are different from themselves. Spending most of his adult years studying mutation at Oxford University, Professor Charles Xavier who himself was a secret mutant telepath formed the legendary X-Men to protect a world that hates and fears them.[6][8]

X-Men #1

Group Formation

Following an encounter with the Shadow King,[9] Xavier vowed to protect the world from the threat of evil mutants and endeavored to foster peaceful coexistence between humans and mutants. Working with Moira MacTaggart, he eventually decided to start a school for mutants, training them to be what would eventually become his first "X-Men".

Turning his father's estate into Professor Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters, Charles's earliest student was young Jean Grey, only twelve years old when her mental powers manifested.[10] He constructed the Danger Room to test mutants, and developed Cyberno,[11] a prototype mutant detector that was later replaced by a more powerful machine, Cerebro.[12]

After years of preparation, Charles decided that it was time to recruit the young mutants whom he had been keeping track of as anti-mutant hysteria hit its peak. With reports about a young mutant accidentally endangering and then saving a crowd of people with an optic blast, Charles traveled to Washington D.C., seeking out FBI agent Fred Duncan, assigned to investigate reports of mutants. Xavier convinced Duncan to allow him to enroll young mutants in his private school and train them to battle evil mutants.[13]

In the following days, Charles recruited Scott Summers, the young mutant in the news story. Rescuing the boy from the clutches of evil mutant Jack Winters,[14] Scott became the first of the X-Men, as "Cyclops". Next, Cyclops and the Professor rescued young Bobby Drake, a mutant commanding extreme cold and moisture, from an angry lynch mob.[15] He joined the group as "Iceman".

Xavier's next recruit was the winged Warren Worthington III, who was already embarking on a solo career as the high-flying Angel.[16] After a brief battle, Angel agreed to join the group.[17] Their next recruit was the dexterous and intelligent Henry McCoy, whom the X-Men rescued from the would-be conqueror, the Conquistador.[18] Rounding out the group, Charles had Jean Grey join them as Marvel Girl.[6]

The Early Years

After training extensively in the school's Danger Room, the students were sent on field missions to protect the world from dangerous mutants who used their powers against humanity. The first mission brought them to Cape Citadel, Florida and in direct confrontation with the self-styled "Master of Magnetism", Magneto[6], who became their most frequent enemy. Although this adventure hailed the X-Men as heroes, growing anti-mutant hysteria eventually marred the X-Men's reputation.

Their next adventure found them defending Washington D.C. from thief and mutant teleporter, the Vanisher.[19] They had their first interaction with the super-hero community, clashing with Iron Man.[20] They also found that not all mutants were interested in joining when the immovable Blob rejected an invitation into their ranks.[21]

Magneto returned to plague the X-Men, this time with his own group, the so-called "Brotherhood of Evil Mutants". They first clashed with the X-Men when the Brotherhood took over the nation of Santo Marco[22] and later attempted a full-on capture of the X-Men.[23]

The X-Men had three subsequent clashes with the Brotherhood: the first, a failed attempt by the Brotherhood to recruit the Sub-Mariner[26], the second, a similar scenario involving the Blob[12] and a third failed recruitment, absurdly prospecting the thunder god, Thor, into the Brotherhood's ranks.[27]

During this period, the Professor briefly left Cyclops in charge of the school while attempting to stop the alien Lucifer from conquering the world. This attempt was foiled thanks to the assistance of the X-Men and the Avengers, beginning the two groups' long-standing association.[31] The X-Men gained another ally in Ka-Zar when an investigation of his existence at the South Pole led to the discovery of the Savage Land. The X-Men aided Ka-Zar and his saber-toothed cat, Zabu, in defeating the Swamp Men.[32]

The X-Men finally witnessed the apparent end of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants following an encounter with the alien Stranger, ending with the Stranger taking Magneto and the Toad to his planet for study, and transforming Mastermind into dense matter.[33]

New Threats

New threats arose, such as the Professor's stepbrother Cain Marko, who terrorized the X-Men as the mystically-empowered Juggernaut[8]. The X-Men defeated Marko with the aid of the Human Torch[34]. With anti-mutant hysteria again on the rise, scientist Bolivar Trask invented the Sentinels, giant mutant-hunting robots[35]. However, the robots revolted against their master, capturing Trask and the Professor and taking them to their new robotic leader, Master Mold. Master Mold planned to enslave the human race but the X-Men saved the Professor[36] and found a way to destroy them. The encounter ended with Trask's death[37].

Master Mold

Still recovering from their battle against the Sentinels, the X-Men were once more targeted by a returning Magneto[38], who was defeated and recaptured by the Stranger[39]. They attended the wedding of Reed Richards and Susan Storm, aiding in its defense from a legion of party-crashing villains gathered by Doctor Doom[40].

The X-Men battled Mimic, a bitter young man who had gained the ability to mimic other people's super-powers and learned the X-Men's secret identities. The battle ended with Mimic stripped of his powers and with no memory of the X-Men's civilian identities[41]. Lucifer resurfaced to finalize his master's alien invasion, using the Blob and Unus to pose as X-Men to besmirch the team's standing with the public and otherwise occupy them[42]. Although the Blob and Unus escaped, the X-Men succeeded in foiling Lucifer's plot[43].

Jean was forced by her parents to leave Xavier's for Metro College[45]. Despite the fact that Jean was no longer attending their school, she remained part of the group, although with less regularity. The rest of the team battled El Tigre[46], preventing him from taking over the world with the power of the Mayan God, Kukulcan[47].

The Factor Three Conspiracy

X-Men vs. Mutant Master

Fearing an imminent threat, the Professor pressed the group to find new recruits. They unsuccessfully pursued Quicksilver, Scarlet Witch and Spider-Man. They recruited Mimic, though, who had regained his memories and powers following a lab explosion at Metro College. He joined the group despite the Puppet Master using him as his pawn to destroy the X-Men[48].

The X-Men soon learned of Factor Three, the organization that sent agents Ogre and the enslaved Banshee after them in an attempt to kidnap the Professor. Freeing Banshee from Factor Three's control, the X-Men easily defeated Ogre and foiled the plot[49].

Factor Three struck again when the Professor attempted to cure his step-brother of being the Juggernaut. The resulting experiment of both science and sorcery ended with the Juggernaut's revival and the Professor on the brink of death. Factor Three mentally contacted the Juggernaut and tried to get him to join their group[53]. The X-Men ultimately stopped the Juggernaut with the aid of Dr. Strange, helping force Marko into the Crimson Cosmos. However, during the process, Factor Three kidnapped the Professor[54].

The X-Men came to the rescue of Ralph Roberts again, landing them in a conflict between the Mole Man and Tyrannus[55].

When Banshee attempted to contact the X-Men after learning of Factor Three's European headquarters, his message was interrupted, leading to the X-Men briefly battling Spider-Man, mistakenly believing the Wall-Crawler was a member of Factor Three[56]. Without the money to pay for airfare to Europe, the X-Men attempted to raise it but ended up taking a loan from the wealthy philanthropist father of Tom Regal after the X-Men aided in stopping Tom's rampage as the armored Mekano[57].

Arriving in Europe, they were captured by Factor Three, whose membership included the Vanisher, Blob, Unus, Mastermind as well as two new villains: the Changeling and Mutant Master. The group found the X-Men "guilty" of betraying mankind and sentenced them to death. Before executing the X-Men, Factor Three revealed that they intended to initiate World War III by attacking both the United States and Russia, sparking a nuclear exchange between the two[58]. The X-Men split into two, foiling both plots[13] and confronted Mutant Master at his headquarters in the United States[59].

There, with the aid of the Changeling, they freed the Professor. Mutant Master was revealed as a member of the alien race, Siris. The X-Men and Factor Three worked together to stop Mutant Master and parted peacefully but vowed to meet again as enemies. Upon returning to the Mansion, the X-Men were rewarded with new costumes designed by Jean[59].

The "Death" of Professor Xavier

The "Death" of Professor X

The X-Men investigated the discovery of Frankenstein's Monster, which turned out to be a malfunctioning robotic scout for an alien race. The X-Men were forced to destroy it[11].

Professor Xavier learned of an impending invasion from the alien Z'Nox race. Needing time to prepare, the Professor made plans to place himself in seclusion. Approached by the terminally ill Changeling, the Professor imparted some of his mental powers to the dying mutant to aid him in his role of posing as the Professor while Charles prepared for the invasion. The only other member of the X-Men who was made aware of this plan was Jean, who had her mental powers unlocked by the Professor. Xavier went into seclusion while Changeling took his place[60].

The subterranean Grotesk, mutated by the underground nuclear testing that destroyed his people, threatened the Earth[61]. During the ensuing battle, the Changeling (posing as the Professor) sacrificed his life to stop Grotesk and saved the Earth[62]. After the "Professor's" funeral, the X-Men were captured and imprisoned by Magneto, who had just reformed the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants[63]. Also wishing to get revenge against the Avengers, Magneto allowed Angel to escape to lure the other team to Magneto's hideout[64]. Although Magneto pitted the X-Men and the Avengers against each other, the two groups succeeded in defeating him. Magneto seemingly perished in an explosion[65].

Returning to the Mansion and still mourning the loss of their mentor, the X-Men were visited by FBI Agent Duncan. After the X-Men were read Xavier's final will, bequeathing everything to them, they were forced to battle the Juggernaut. Juggernaut had been temporarily returned to Earth before being shunted off to the Crimson Cosmos once more. After the battle, agent Duncan informed the group that by government order the X-Men were to disband for their own safety[66].

This split proved to be short-lived. After Beast and Iceman battled the Warlock (now calling himself the Maha Yogi)[67] and Cyclops and Marvel Girl battled Quasimodo[68], the group was drawn back together when Cerebro detected a large concentration of mutants in the San Francisco area[69].

While investigating, the X-Men met a mutant named Lorna Dane, who had arrived in San Francisco with no recollection how she got there. They learned that Mesmero, a mutant hypnotist, was amassing an army of mutants in the name of Magneto to enslave humanity[69]. Believing Lorna to be the daughter of Magneto, the army captured Lorna and Iceman, and took them to Mesmero's Mutant City outside of San Francisco. There they activated Lorna's latent mutant powers. The X-Men came to Bobby's rescue and learned that the group was seemingly led by Magneto (actually a robot[70]) who claimed that Lorna was really his daughter. The X-Men managed to escape, but Lorna stayed behind, deciding to remain loyal to her supposed father[71]. The X-Men returned to destroy the Mutant City, having Cyclops pose as an evil mutant named Erik the Red in order to infiltrate the militia[72]. During the ensuing battle, Iceman revealed to Lorna evidence proving that she was not Magneto's daughter, and she helped the X-Men defeat Magneto and Mesmero. This prompted Magneto to flee and detonate Mutant City. Escaping with the X-Men, Lorna returned with them to New York City[73].

The X-Men attended the wedding of Yellowjacket and the Wasp[74]. Later, an accident during a test of one of the Professor's inventions led to the X-Men accidentally teleporting Blastaar from the Negative Zone to Earth. During the ensuing battle, Blastaar was seemingly killed when the machine to which he was linked short-circuited[75].

Havok and the Return of Professor X

Enter: Havok

Scott soon reentered the life of his brother Alex who had just graduated from university. However, Alex was captured by the Living Pharaoh, a mutant who found that his and Alex's mutant powers were linked[16]. Tracking the Pharaoh to Egypt, the X-Men battled him there and learned that Alex was a mutant who could control plasma energy[76]. In the ensuing battle, Alex was sealed in a special sarcophagus created by the Pharaoh to allow him full access to Alex's powers, transforming Pharaoh into the Living Monolith. Alex managed to break free once more, cutting off the Pharaoh's powers, but Alex was horrified to find that he didn't have much control over his own powers[77].

Before the X-Men could help Alex, he was captured by Sentinels that had been rebuilt by Larry Trask, who was hunting down mutants with the aid of Judge Robert Chalmers. Trask, the son of Bolivar Trask, revived the Sentinels to get revenge against mutants in general, and the X-Men in particular, for the death of his father. Giving Alex a uniform to regulate his powers and naming him Havok, Trask had the confused mutant aid him and the Sentinels in capturing all the world's known mutants, including Iceman, Lorna Dane, and various X-Men villains[78]. Alex aided the X-Men in defeating the Sentinels when he learned that Trask - who was actually a mutant himself - didn't intend to keep his word[70]. Cyclops managed to win the day by convincing the Sentinels to destroy the source of mutations, leading the Sentinels to fly into the sun. During the batle, Alex was heavily injured[79].

The X-Men put Havok into the care of Dr. Karl Lykos who was secretly required to absorb the energies from other people to survive. However, the life energies of mutants caused Lykos to mutate into the powerful pterodactyl-like humanoid called Sauron[80]. Sauron battled the X-Men, but later fled to Tierra del Fuego and reverted back to Lykos. Tracking Lykos there, the X-Men were unable to stop him from committing suicide to avoid draining the energy of his lover, Tanya[81].

Traveling into the Savage Land, the X-Men searched for Lykos' body, while Cyclops, Marvel Girl, Iceman, and Beast reunited with Ka-Zar and agreed to aid him against the Savage Land Mutates. Angel (searching for Lykos on his own and unaware of his comrades' subsequent team-up with Ka-Zar) was duped into joining with the Mutates by their leader, the Creator (secretly Magneto)[82]. Warren soon learned the truth and assisted the X-Men in defeating Magneto and destroying his citadel. The resulting destruction caused the Mutates to revert back into early Savage Land lifeforms[83].

Returning to the United States, the X-Men went to Washington D.C. to stop Sunfire (a fire wielding mutant from Japan who had been manipulated by his imperialist Uncle Tomo to despise the United States for their part in the bombing of Hiroshima during World War II) from interrupting an important conference between US and Japanese officials[84].

The X-Men were shocked when Professor X turned up alive and well and explained to them that he had been preparing for the coming Z'Nox invasion. With the help of Cyclops' and Havok's powers, the Professor linked every mind on Earth in order to drive the Z'Nox invasion away[60]. The victory left the Professor on the brink of death, requiring the X-Men to seek out the Hulk, whose human persona had the knowledge to cure the Professor[85].

The Hidden Years

The Hidden Years

After an altercation with Dr. Doom and the Fantastic Four [86], the X-Men got back into training with Xavier again[87].

Iceman briefly left the team over the romantic turbulence between him, Lorna and Havok, as well as feeling betrayed over Xavier's secrets. Learning what happened in his absence, the Professor sent the X-Men back to the Savage Land to recover the body of Magneto, where their plane crashed. While most of the team was recovered and nursed by the people of the Savage Land, they were told that Jean had perished in the crash[88]. They soon learned that they had misinterpreted the explanation, as people in this region did not die, but were sent to the "Land of the Dead". The X-Men were soon embroiled in stopping the Nhu’Ghari race from enslaving other Savage Land natives, while Jean learned that Magneto was still alive. The X-Men defeated Magneto and his revived Mutates, captured him and left the land in a ballooned aircraft[89]. When a storm hit their craft, Magneto escaped while Angel and the Nhu’Ghari named Avia were lost at sea. The remaining X-Men were whisked away to Kenya where they met the young Ororo Munroe, a mutant who could control the weather[90]. Cyclops, Beast and Marvel Girl helped Ororo defeat the weather controlling Deluge.[91]

Meanwhile in the States Iceman, Havok and Polaris received a mental call from the Professor to seek out the others who had gone missing[92]. Lorna and Havok arrived in the region to search for their friends with Ka-Zar's help[93], while Iceman attempted to get to the Savage Land alone (to no avail). Iceman was found with amnesia by Karl Lykos[94]. Lorna and Havok picked up Bobby's mutant signature and sought him out.

The other X-Men returned home only to be attacked by the Fantastic Four[95]. Explaining to the Fantastic Four that they linked every mind in the world to stop an invasion by the alien Z'Nox, the X-Men realized that while they saved the Earth, they did not prevent the Z'Nox from turning their invasion fleet on another world and team up with the Fantastic Four to deal with their menace in space. While in space, Jean's mind was contacted by and her body briefly possessed by the Phoenix Force, however the contact was erased from everyone's mind. The X-Men and the Fantastic Four then worked together to shunt the Z'Nox home-world into the Negative Zone where it couldn't harm anyone[96]. Returning to Earth, Jean had a secret screening session with Moira MacTaggart.

The Hidden Years

The Professor and Beast traveled to Duffee, Illinois, investigating a new mutant detected by Cerebro. They met a little girl named Ashley Martin, who has gained mental control of one of Larry Trask's damaged Sentinels. However, as it regained its original programming and attempted to kill all three mutants, Ashley shut it down. Xavier and Beast battled the young girl, who turned against them. Xavier was forced to use his mental powers to delay Ashley's mutant powers to trigger only once she would mature. The Professor sent Beast back to the Mansion while he stayed to monitor the girl's recovery.

Angel and Avia were rescued from sea by a barge that was happening by and were sold to a man named Krueger[97]. Scott, Jean and Candy Southern searched for Warren, leading them to a Kruger's boat run freakshow[98]. They were captured and de-powered by Krueger who sold them to the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants along with Angel[99]. They later defeated the Brotherhood.

Havok and Polaris got caught up in a battle between Sauron and Magneto and his Mutates. The battle ended with Magneto's defeat and Iceman regaining his memories and being recovered by his teammates. To insure that he was undisturbed and remained believed-to-be-dead, Lykos used his hypnotic powers to make the three X-Men forget their encounter[100].

Candy warned Angel that his uncle Burt was attempting to marry his mother following his father's death[101]. The X-Men stopped the wedding, foiling Burt's plot but were too late to prevent her from dying of the poison Burt was administering to her[102].

Havok, Lorna and Iceman came home to find the Mansion empty and Cerebro detecting a new mutant in the Himalayan mountains[103]. Finding their comrades gone, the X-Men went after them and learn the fate of the First Line, a group of heroes pre-dating the Fantastic Four who perished battling Skrulls, realizing Cerebro's initial signal picked up the hidden realm of the Inhumans[104].

The Hidden Years

Returning home, the X-Men found their friend Avia poisoned by Kraven the Hunter, challenging one of the X-Men to beat him in combat for the cure. The Beast accepted, winning the duel.

Lorna was compelled to leave when put under the mental control of Tad Carter[105]. Following after Lorna, the X-Men found that Tad was a member of a group called the Promise, mutants who were attempting to shape human and mutant kind and spent ten year intervals in cryogenic sleep. The group decided to take Havok, Lorna and Angel into the fold[106], and rejected the others sending them to their doom. The group ended up unconscious in the realm of the Mole Man[107].

As the core X-Men battled off the Mole Man and his monsters, Angel was freed by a member of the Promise and accompanied her to see her family. When the Family wanted nothing to do with her she returned with Angel to free Havok and Lorna. When Havok went off to stop Magneto and Sub-Mariner's attack on Earth, which was being opposed by the Fantastic Four, Angel refused to go, wanting to search for his friends. He ended up getting turned into stone by Pixie and Makkari of the Eternals, who did not want to be discovered, but put Angel on the right track to finding his friends. Havok went to New York to help in the fight against Magneto, but got chased off by an anti-mutant mob.[108] Ultimately, the rest of the X-Men escaped from the Mole Man's clutches and were reunited with Warren, while Havok managed to free Lorna from the Promise, who parted company when their leader Tobias Messenger was secretly killed by one of their own.

The Hidden Years

Ultimately, while Iceman realized that the Professor meant well in lying to the X-Men to deal with the Z'Nox invasion he was not ready to rejoin the team[109]. He was briefly conned into going after Spider-Man by racist politician Sam Bullit, but rejoined the X-Men shortly after[110]. There he got into a fight with Havok over Lorna, prompting Alex to leave the group. Lorna went after him where they got into a battle with the Hulk, who confused Lorna for his lover Jarella[111]. The duo was captured by the Secret Empire before they could return to the X-Men[112].

Hank left the team for a position at the Brand Corporation where he further mutated while battling the Secret Empire. Ashamed of this transformation and in deep with the crooked Brand security, Beast ignored all calls to action from the X-Men[113].

The remaining X-Men investigated a series of murders perpetuated by Morbius the Living Vampire that were blamed on Spider-Man. Although the group battled Spider-Man initially, they learned the truth, and helped Spider-Man cure himself of an illness and take Morbius into custody[114]. Beast was captured by the Secret Empire, as were Warren, and later Bobby when the Professor sent the remaining X-Men to check on their friends and colleagues.[112]

The remaining X-Men helped the Hulk defeat the Juggernaut[115], before learning that the Secret Empire was responsible for the other mutants disappearing. They eventually teamed up with Captain America and the Falcon to fight their common enemy and free their friends[116]. Iceman aided the Human Torch in catching the elemental villain Equinox before departing on a secret mission with the X-Men[117]. While the X-Men were away, the Professor aided the Defenders in stopping Magneto and his Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. The battle ended with Magneto's creation Alpha the Ultimate Mutant changing Magneto and his Brotherhood members into children[118].

Deadly Genesis

Deadly Genesis

The X-Men investigated a large mutant energy signature registered on the island Krakoa. They learned to their horror that the entire island was alive, a mutant byproduct of nuclear testing. It captured the X-Men as it fed upon the life forces of mutants, however it set Cyclops free to gather more mutants[119].

Xavier gathered a group of mutants who were taken in by Moira MacTaggart to form a new team of X-Men. These X-Men included Vulcan, Petra, Darwin and Sway. Cyclops took the team to Krakoa island, however they were overpowered, and Petra and Sway were killed by the island. Darwin and Vulcan (unknown to everyone) were saved when they were drawn into the Earth, where Darwin absorbed Sway and Petra's powers, converted himself into energy and merged with Vulcan. Cyclops, believing everyone to be dead, returned to the Professor mortified over the whole ordeal. Deciding that it would be best for everyone, the Professor used his mental powers to wipe out all memory of their ill-fated group of X-Men and began recruiting a new team to face Krakoa[120].

This new group of X-Men consisted of former X-Men associates Banshee, Sunfire, and Storm, as well as new recruits: The German demon-looking teleporter Nightcrawler, Russian strongman Colossus, Canadian berserker Wolverine and Native American Thunderbird. Where the first group failed to free the original team, this group succeeded. Freeing the original X-Men, both groups combined their powers to send Krakoa into orbit, ending its threat[119].

All New, All Different

All New, All Different X-Men

After their return, all of the original X-Men left except for Cyclops. Sunfire also abruptly quit the team[121]. Thunderbird was killed during the new team's second mission against Count Nefaria and his Ani-Men[122].

Upon reentry to Earth after a mission in space against Stephen Lang'sSentinels[123], Jean Grey pushed herself to the limit holding their spacecraft together and shielding her team members from intense radiation.[124] Believed dead upon their crash landing in New York's Jamaica Bay, Jean suddenly arose from the ocean calling herself Phoenix and wielding more power than ever before. Unknown at the time, Jean had been replaced by the cosmic entity known as the Phoenix Force, while Jean was placed in a cocoon at the bottom of the bay while her body healed from radiation poisoning. Soon after, the X-Men returned to space to aid Lilandra Neramani of the Shi'ar stop her mad brother D'Ken from using the power of the M'Kraan Crystal to take over the universe.[125] With the crystal about to shatter and destroy reality itself, Phoenix used her awesome power to fuse it back together. The X-Men returned to Earth, and Lilandra returned with them.

After a fight with Mesmero and a fierce battle with Magneto inside an Antarctic volcano[126], most of the X-Men found themselves in the Savage Land and separated from Phoenix and the Avenger Beast, with each group presuming the other dead. Phoenix and Beast returned to the school to give Xavier the bad news. Having nothing to keep him on earth, Xavier chose to accompany Lilandra back to Shi'ar space.[127]

The X-Men slowly made their way home after their adventures in the Savage Land[128] and in Japan[129] Banshee injured his vocal chords during a battle with Moses Magnum, leaving him powerless. The X-Men were ambushed by Alpha Flight[130] on the way back to the states, who took Wolverine into custody (although he quickly escaped). When they finally returned home, they found Professor X gone and the mansion's telephone disconnected.

Uncanny X-Men: Phoenix Saga

The X-Men and Phoenix were reunited at Muir Island where they battled Proteus[131], the reality altering mutant son of Moira MacTaggert. Despite his injuries, Banshee still accompanied the X-Men for the mission. However, realizing he wanted to stay by Moira MacTaggart's side, Banshee left the X-Men to be with her.

While Phoenix believed the X-Men to be dead, she caught the attention of Jason Wyngarde, also known as the former Brotherhood of the Evil Mutant member Mastermind, who created a rich "Lady Grey" fantasy world in her mind with his illusions using a device created by Emma Frost. Eventually believing herself to actually be Lady Grey and also consort to Wyngarde, she was easily convinced to become the Black Queen of the Hellfire Club during the X-Men's battle against them.[133] Phoenix broke free from Wyngarde's control when she saw a psychic version of Cyclops being murdered. Unleashing her dark side, Phoenix became Dark Phoenix, used her powers to drive Mastermind insane, destroyed the Blackbird, and abruptly departed from Earth. Seeking to enjoy the same sense of power she had felt inside the M'Kraan Crystal, Phoenix traveled to a distant star and absorbed its energy. The sun went nova, destroying a nearby planet inhabited by five billion aliens.[134]

Upon her return to Earth, Beast designed a neutralizer to subdue the all powerful entity. Xavier placed mental blocks in her mind to reduce Dark Phoenix's powers and allow Jean to regain control.[135] Aware of the massacre in their Empire, The Shi'ar arrived on Earth demanding the death of Dark Phoenix. Xavier invoked Arin'nn Haelar, an irrefutable Shi'ar duel of honor. Knowing her team would win, Lilandra agreed to allow the Imperial Guard to battle the X-Men. Putting up a valiant fight, the mutants fell one-by-one during a long battle on the Blue Area of the Moon. With only Cyclops and Phoenix left standing, Summers was hit by a stray energy bolt. Set into a panic, the mental blocks Xavier placed in Phoenix's mind were destroyed and she was able to utilize her full power. Lilandra ordered Plan Omega, the complete destruction of the Sol system, upon Phoenix' return. To avert the loss of the entire star system, Xavier ordered the X-Men to defeat Phoenix. Jean regained control once more, only to activate a Kree weapon and committed suicide to avert another disaster. Cyclops deduced it was her plan all along.[136]

After Jean Grey's funeral[137], Kitty Pryde came to live at the school as the newest X-Man. Cyclops left the team to figure out where his life was going. Storm became leader in his absence. She underwent a trial-by-fire in a desperate battle against Mystique's new Brotherhood of Evil Mutants to save the life of Senator Robert Kelly.[138]

Days of Future Past

Other notable foes from this period included Doctor Doom[139], who attempted to romance Storm, and a memorable encounter with Magneto in the Bermuda Triangle.[140] As Kitty destroyed the central computer of his super-weapon, Magneto lashed out and almost killed her. Horrified at his actions, Magneto ceased fighting and contemplated how he had become no better than the humans who had massacred his family. This battle re-united Cyclops with the team.

Corsair of the Starjammers returned to Earth seeking the X-Men's aid in stopping a rebellion against Majestrix Lilandra.[141] The Starjammers were framed for kidnapping Lilandra while it was really Deathbird, the Majestrix' sister, in league with the alien Brood. The X-Men discovered the truth, stopped the rebellion against the Shi'ar empire, and reunited Xavier with Lilandra. Cyclops discovered that Corsair was actually his father, abducted by the Shi'ar decades earlier.

Shortly thereafter a television interview with Senator Robert Kelly worried the X-Men, who had FBI connections in their early years, and thus had government files on many of them. Carol Danvers, Wolverine, and Storm infiltrated the Pentagon and uploaded an open-ended virus that erased all references to the X-Men or members of the team.[142] While in the Pentagon, they also encountered Mystique and Rogue of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants.

The Brood resurfaced abducting the X-Men, Lilandra, and Carol Danvers.[143] Traveling across the galaxy to their home planet, a Brood Queen implanted embryos within them. Interested by Danvers unique genetic code, she was experimented upon and became Binary. Although the X-Men escaped from "Sleazeworld" all seemed lost, as once the embryos matured their hosts would undergo a metamorphosis and become a warrior Brood. Storm was saved by a young Acanti, a large space-faring creature that resembled a whale and communicated telepathically. The Acanti had been enslaved by the Brood and used as star-ships. With nothing left to lose the X-Men vowed to save the Acanti race. After freeing the Acanti "prophet-singer" soul from the Brood home-world, the X-Men were healed. Before killing the Brood Queen, Kitty Pryde found the friendly dragon Lockheed who followed her back to Earth.

The X-Family Grows

The New Mutants

During the prolonged period when they were abducted by the Brood, Xavier believed that the X-Men had been killed. Moira MacTaggert convinced him to form a new team of adolescent mutants that needed his help in controlling their powers.[144] Unwilling to see more of his students perish, Xavier was only willing to train them in the use of their special abilities rather than sending them out into combat as he had with the X-Men. These New Mutants ended up in many battles regardless, and occasionally aided the X-Men.

The X-Men learned there was one Brood embryo that had not been eliminated[145], one planted in Professor Xavier during their first contact with the evil aliens. Racing home they found Xavier had already been transformed into one of the Brood while battling the startled New Mutants. Defeated and taken onboard the Starjammer, Xavier's mind was placed in a cloned body.

Upon returning from space, Cyclops left the X-Men for a prolonged period of time. He had met Madelyne Pryor during a trip to meet his grandparents in Anchorage and fallen in love.[146][147] It was unknown at the time that Madelyne was a clone of Jean Grey, though the resemblance was obvious.[148] The two married, and had a child, Nathan.[116][149]

Angel was captured by the Morlocks, and taken down into their tunnels to be Callisto's groom. Storm challenged Callisto to combat, without powers and to the death, which she won, securing her leadership of the Morlocks and Angel's freedom.[150]

Two more members soon joined the team. Rogue's Brotherhood of Mutants teammates couldn't help as the Carol Danvers persona she had previously absorbed began to overwhelm her own personality. Xavier agreed to aid the desperate mutant and added her to the roster.[148] Carol Danvers was furious that her friends would allow the girl who destroyed her life to join the team, and left Earth with the Starjammers.[151] Most of Rogue's teammates still held animosity towards her for what she had done as a member of the Brotherhood, but she slowly gained their trust by continually showing her bravery; she nearly died protecting Wolverine and infiltrated the SHIELD helicarrier to rescue Michael Rossi.[152] Later, Jean Grey's daughter from an alternate timeline, Rachel Summers, traveled back in time and joined the team.[153]

Headmaster Magneto

Fall of the Mutants

Growing from his crisis of conscience, Magneto became an X-Men ally. Captured by Freedom Force while attending a Holocaust memorial gathering[154], he was put on trial in Paris.[155] Mostly exonerated of charges on account of his second infancy, the trial was unfortunately interrupted by the Fenris twins, who sent Magneto and Professor X for a ride in the Parisian sewers. Half-drowned and near-death from other medical conditions, Xavier convinced his old friend to take his place as headmaster of the institute. Lilandra took him from Earth to recuperate from his injuries. Using the alias of Michael Xavier, Charles Xavier's alleged cousin, Magneto was Headmaster for a long tenure.[156] Magneto was later invited to join the inner circle of the Hellfire Club, an offer which he and Storm decided was worth accepting.[157]

Cyclops returned, but his attempts to regain leadership of the X-Men was opposed by an experienced Storm, now also an accomplished leader even without her powers.[149] Storm defeated Cyclops through martial skill alone - forcing him to surrender by removing his visor. Cyclops left the team. Shortly afterwards, Angel contacted the original X-Men, including a recently discovered living Jean Grey, with the intent of getting them back together again.[158] At the behest of his friend Cameron Hodge, Angel proposed that X-Factor become a mutant-hunting contractor as a cover for their activities. Rachel went dancing up the spiral paths into the Mojoverse shortly thereafter.[159]

The Marauders (secretly commanded by Mister Sinister) made a substantial impact on the X-Men with their callous murder of most of the Morlocks living in the Alley.[160] In their first battle with the X-Men, the Marauders took a gruesome toll, paralyzing Colossus, putting Nightcrawler in a coma, and trapping Shadowcat with her own power such that she was slowly discorporating. Magneto succeeded in healing Colossus, who rejoined the team, but Shadowcat and Nightcrawler were beyond the X-Men's help.[161] Cyclops' brother and reservist Havok, Mojoverse freedom-fighter Longshot, the singer Dazzler, and telepath Psylocke took the injured mutants place. After recovering, Shadowcat and Nightcrawler went on to form Excalibur.[162]

Fall of the Mutants

X-Men: Inferno Trade Paperback

While in Texas searching for Forge, the X-Men battled the Adversary and appeared to die saving Earth on live television.[163] The X-Men did indeed perish but Roma resurrected them , which resulted in them becoming undetectable to electronics. While improving public opinion on the heroism of mutants, their friends and family, including the New Mutants and X-Factor, believed them to be dead. The X-Men maintained this as a cover story to protect their family and friends from the retribution of super-villains, and relocated to the Australian Outback after defeating the Reavers, whose base they claimed.[164] They also took in Madelyne Pryor to protect her; she was abandoned by Cyclops, and being hunted by the Marauders.[165]

The X-Men made enemies of the Genoshan government after rescuing Jennifer Ransom in a covert ops mission on the island.[166]

Soon, the X-Men were lured back to New York during the Inferno crisis.[167][168] Madelyne Pryor was discovered to be a clone created by Mr. Sinister that a part of the Phoenix Force entered after committing suicide on the Moon.[169] Pryor struck a deal with the demon N'Astirh to become the Goblin Queen out of anger at Cyclops.[170] N'Astirh's intentions to sacrifice Nathan to allow demons to freely travel to Earth became apparent as his spells slowly converted New York City into a hellish nightmare.[171] X-Men and X-Factor, after being pitted against one another, defeated the demon.[172] Pryor was suicidal after learning of her origin, and killed herself in an attempt to bring Jean Grey with her. Jean survived, and absorbed the remaining Phoenix essence within Madelyne. This was the first time the X-Men were able to confirm that Jean Grey was alive.[173] The X-Men travelled to the ruins of X-Mansion, to confront Mr. Sinister. Mr. Sinister was waiting for them and reveals that, he manipulated Cyclops since his childhood and that Pryor was a clone of Jean Grey. After a long fight between the X-Men, X-Factor and Sinister, Cyclops manages to blast Sinister with a full power optic blast, seemingly destroying him.[174][175]

Divided

Rogue is pulled into the Siege Perilous

Besides resurrecting the X-Men, Roma gave them a mysterious jewel called the Siege Perilous. The magical gem could enlarge to a giant portal. All who entered would be judged by higher powers, their good acts and ill deeds weighed, and be reborn in a new life without remembering their past lives.[164] The X-Men found no use for the jewel during the Inferno, against the alien Brood, or when returning to the Savage Land. Curious, Dazzler used her powers to take a look inside the illuminated gem. She saw various alternate versions of herself before they were all murdered and merged into a single being that warned Dazzler everyone dies sometime.[176]

Later the same day, a merged Nimrod/Mastermold attacked the X-Men. With only herself and Rogue left standing, Dazzler threw the Siege Perilous behind the Sentinel hoping her enemy would be sucked into the portal. While the portal appeared, the Nimrod/Mastermold anchored itself to the ground and grabbed Rogue as she tried to push it through. With no other choice, Dazzler blasted both of them into the gateway.[177]

With Rogue presumed dead, and other members leaving the team, the X-Men were down to only Havok, Dazzler, Colossus and Psylocke.[178] Back in the Savage Land to rescue Polaris, Psylocke had a precognitive vision of the X-Men dying back in the Australian Outback and a bound Gateway pointing to the Siege Perilous. Worried about her vision, Betsy wasn't able to warn the others before Gateway teleported them back to the Outback.[179]

Immediately sensing the Reavers approaching when they returned to Australia, Psylocke suggested using the Siege Perilous to escape as the X-Men were in no condition to face the deadly cyborgs. After a brief discussion, and telepathic convincing of Havok, all four mutants entered the gateway. As the portal collapsed back into a gem, Donald Pierce arrived and smashed the jewel to pieces.[180]

Muir Island X-Men

Meanwhile, Polaris boarded a freighter to travel back home. Her magnetic powers stolen by Zaladane and replaced with awkward size changing and invulnerability, Lorna couldn't simply fly back to her friends. Strangely, she noticed the sailors began to act weird and that her body had become a nexus for negative emotional energy. As chaos erupted on board, Lorna contacted Muir Island for help bringing Banshee to rescue her.[181] Lorna informed all the Muir Island residents that the X-Men were indeed alive, but a sudden siege occurred before anything could be done. A haphazardly created interim group of X-Men was formed to protect allies of the mutants living on Muir Island from an attack by Pierce's Reavers. Lorna joined mutants Forge, Banshee, Multiple Man, Siryn, the Morlock Sunder, X-Allies Sharon Friedlander, Tom Corsi, Alysande Stuart, Amanda Sefton, Legion and Moira MacTaggart to defend the research center. Val Cooper dispatched Freedom Force to assist.[182] Though the attack was repelled, Sunder and Stonewall were killed by the cyborgs while Destiny was murdered by a Shadow King possessed Legion.[183] The remaining "Muir Island X-Men" stayed, under the influence of the psychic entity.[184]

Weeks after entering the gateway, Rogue returned to the empty Australian base with her memory intact. At first believing the cosmic judging was a joke, she realized the memories she contained belonging to Carol Danvers were gone. She was then attacked by Ms. Marvel, and discovered the Siege Perilous had given both personalities within Rogue a body connected to a single life force. Rogue was prepared to die, but Magneto intervened and killed Danvers.[185] The two spent time in the Savage Land, allying themselves with Ka-Zar against Zaladane, and began to become attracted to one another. Their relationship ended before it had a chance to blossom once Magneto killed Zaladane, which Rogue opposed.[186]

After the Reaver assault Forge and Banshee began to look for the missing X-Men, and found Colossus in New York City under the guise of Peter Nicholas.[187] His memory of his superhero life and his special powers gone, Colossus had become a popular artist in Soho living with Genoshan emigrants.[188] Peter even began a relationship with the Morlock Callisto, her face molded in that of a beautiful model by Masque. Realizing he was happy in his new life, his former teammates left him alone.[189]

The fate of Colossus

Psylocke was found naked and amnesiac by agents of The Hand. Her mind and soul were transferred into the Asian body of Kwannon, and she was brainwashed into becoming the Lady Mandarin.[190] On a mission she faced Wolverine, and upon attacking him with her psychic knife the backlash of memories of the X-Men began to break her free from the Hand's control.[191]

Storm, believed killed by the Nanny, had actually been de-aged to a pre-teenager; loosing her memories of her adult life in the process.[192] She was framed for murder by the Shadow King, and went back to being a thief. Eventually she crossed paths with Gambit and the two began a partnership, stealing from the rich and giving to the poor. Found by the Nanny before long, the two defeated her and though Ororo's memories were returned she remained a child.[193] Ororo took Gambit with her to the X-Mansion and reunited with Forge and Banshee as they were on their search for the missing X-Men. Unfortunately, tests proved Storm was stuck without her powers as a prepubescent.[194]

Dazzler was discovered on the beach by Guido, Lila Cheney's bodyguard. Alison learned of her past life through computer files,[184] and became trapped in the Mojoverse after a teleport of Lila's went awry when trying to save Longshot from Spiral.

X-Tinction Agenda

The partially regrouped team at the X-Mansion was soon thrown another hurdle; Magistrates from Genosha arrived to capture the mutants for crimes committed on the island. Ororo recognized one of the attackers to be Havok, but couldn't warn her teammates before she was defeated along with the New Mutant members Warlock, Wolfsbane, Rictor, and Boom-Boom.[194] All were transported to Genosha by Pipeline and brought before their true captor: Cameron Hodge. Once an X-Factor ally, Hodge actually despised mutants and made a deal with the demon N'Astirh to become immortal, and came to take control of the nation. Warlock, already weakened, was able to help his friends escape. Hodge intended to acquire Warlocks transformation powers, but Wolfsbane returned to stop the transfer though Warlock was already dead.[195] Rahne was recaptured, and transformed into a mutate.[196]

Havok captures Storm

X-Factor joined the remaining New Mutants and interim X-Men, consisting only of Gambit, Forge, and Banshee, on a rescue mission to save their friends.[197] In South Asia Wolverine, Psylocke, and Jubilee heard of their friend's fates on the news and ended up rescuing Boom Boom and Rictor. Jubilee tended to the young mutants, while Logan and Betsy infiltrated Hodge's citadel only to be discovered by Havok. The X-Men and X-Factor fared no better, with both squads becoming captives. When Havok saw his brother defeated by Hodge, Alex remembered his life before entering the Siege Perilous. Meanwhile Storm had taken Genegineer David Moreau, creator of the mutate process, hostage but was defeated by Hodge and forced to become a mutate.[198]

A mock trial found the mutants guilty, and all were given the choice of being transformed into a mutate or death. They chose death, but Hodge first had to deal with the insurrection of the Genegineer, aware Hodge's actions were insane, and many magistrates including Wipeout. As Wipeout had canceled most of the X-Team's mutant powers, Hodge killed him hoping they would be permanently lost. Unbeknownst to Hodge, Moreau gave Storm the ability to return the mutants their gifts rather than into a mutate. A rebel magistrate brought Storm to the X-Men and as she used her powers, Ororo reverted back into an adult and regained her powers. Ororo then restored her teammates' abilities, and all escaped and started hunting for Hodge.[199]

Concurrently, Moreau planted a bomb to destroy all laboratories within the citadel. Furious, Hodge killed the traitor, though the Genegineer was able to weaken him considerably.[200] The X-Men eventually found their enemy and attacked.[200] Cyclops and Havok unleashed a powerful assault destroying all but Hodge's head which falls near Wolfsbane, who rips it to pieces in a rage. Rictor caused tremors to finally destroy the citadel, burying the remains of Hodge's broken body.[201]

Chief Magistrate Anderson led a revolt against the Genoshan government, and the Magistrates were able to seize power. Havok and Wolfsbane choose to stay behind and make sure mutants were given fair treatment. Because of the intense media coverage of the Genoshan disaster, the world learned the X-Men were still alive. Regardless, the reunited mutants returned to Salem Center and began to rebuild the team that had been splintered for months. Upon their arrival, Warlock's ashes were spread over Doug Ramsey's grave.[201]

Muir Island Saga

Xavier's legs are broken

Unfortunately, there was no rest for the X-Men. Soon after Xavier returned to Earth from his adventures with the Starjammers, an old enemy returned.[202] The Shadow King had been spreading waves of hate around the globe, and used Polaris to absorb the negative emotional energy to empower himself to unthinkable levels. Professor X used Cerebro to identify the source of the chaos. He returned from his sojourn in space and sent the X-Men to Muir Island to confront their oddly acting allies. It seems Moira MacTaggart had been training the "Muir Island X-Men", and new visitors Rogue and Lila Cheney had taken up residence and participated in duels. When the mutants arrived to investigate, they were surprised and defeated by the Shadow King-controlled island residents.[203]

Back in Westchester, Stevie Hunter was attacked by a possessed Colossus.[202] Xavier found no way to break Shadow King's control over him other than erasing the Peter Nicholas personality completely.[204] Charles then asked his original students, X-Factor, to rescue the current X-Team. On Muir Island, Shadow King used Legion as his human host after the current one was killed while Forge eluded possession and even freed some of his friends.[205] The remaining heroes in good mind were divided into three teams, focusing on an astral plane attack on Farouk with a second team defending Xavier from physical attacks and a third freeing Polaris and disrupting their enemies' nexus.[206]

Forge succeeded in using a neuro-synaptic weapon on Psylocke so she could use her "psychic-knife" on Polaris to destroy Farouk's nexus. Xavier was badly wounded during the battle, his legs broken and again confined to a wheelchair.[206] As Shadow King disappeared, Legion fell into a coma and the devastation of Muir Island was apparent. Most importantly, all five X-Factor members returned to the X-Men along with Rogue and Colossus; after many years the X-Men had finally reunited as one team.[207]

Blue and Gold

The X-Men Reunite

With the team now larger than ever before, organization suddenly became essential. To remain effective as a group, the X-Men were divided into two squads: Blue and Gold.[208]

The Blue Squad battled Magneto and his Acolytes in Genosha.[208] Discovering Moira MacTaggart had altered his DNA years ago when he was regressed to a toddler, Magneto questioned if his recent turn to heroics was a result of Moira's tampering or his own free will. Magneto forced Moira to brainwash the Blue Squad into joining his Acolytes on Asteroid M, a space station haven for mutants. To make matters worse, the American and Russian governments decided to use a plasma cannon on the space station to end the threat of Magneto once and for all.[209] Worried about their friends, the Gold Squad sneaked on board and rescued their teammates, while a traitorous Fabian Cortez abandoned Asteroid M and planned to make Magneto a martyr so mutants around the world would join him. Xavier tried to talk the Acolytes into escaping the doomed base with the X-Men, but Magneto and his followers instead stayed to die.[210]

The Gold Squad began their tenure attending a party at the Hellfire Club thrown by Emma Frost. The White Queen explained she and other members of the Club were targets of assassination, and sought the help of her former enemies. Before long, Trevor Fitzroy arrived and began to attack Frost and her Hellions. In Australia, Donald Pierce was attacked by Fitzroy's Sentinels. Gateway teleported Pierce to New York, along with three of the attacking Sentinels. The Sentinels seemingly killed Frost, Pierce, and Jean Grey. Fitzroy drained the life of every Hellion he could subdue, killing all of Frost's students.

Returning her body to the X-Mansion, Xavier realized Jean's consciousness had been relocated to Emma Frost's body. Jean woke up while in the custody of Fitzroy and Shinobi Shaw, who were revealed to be members of the Upstarts. The Upstarts competed in a contest of murder run by the Gamesmaster. Their first targets were former and current Hellfire Club members, and Fitzroy believed he had won and was entitled to run the Upstarts. Jean surprised the two by using telekinesis, a power Emma Frost lacked, and escaped with the X-Men. Fitzroy used the Hellions life essence to open a portal to the future and brought some allies. Bishop, a mutant born in the 21st century, arrived instead. Fitzroy escaped, and Bishop joined the present day X-Men. Xavier realized the White Queen's psyche also remained alive, and returned it to her own comatose body.

Battles with Omega Red (a member of the Soviet Super Soldier program) and Hazard followed.

X-Cutioner's Song

The two teams were brought together when Professor X was shot while giving a speech during a Lila Cheney peace concert. Stryfe (disguised as Cable) shot Xavier and infected him with a techno-organic virus. Simultaneously, Cyclops and Jean Grey were abducted by the Horsemen of Apocalypse in Westchester. They were delivered to Mr. Sinister, who was disguised as Apocalypse unbeknownst to the Horsemen. Sinister handed the Summers couple over to Stryfe in exchange for a mysterious container.

The Gold Team searched for Scott and Jean while the Blue Team joined X-Factor in hunting down X-Force for information on Cable's whereabouts. Cable convinced Wolverine and Bishop it was Stryfe who shot Xavier and not himself, revealing both were from the future and had long been enemies. Apocalypse woke up from rejuvenation to find he had been impersonated, and was defeated by Stryfe. With Beast and Dr. MacTaggert unable to save Xavier, they were forced to work with Apocalypse. Apocalypse sped up the cycle of the techno-organic virus, forcing the pathogen to burn itself out before it can kill the Professor.

Wolverine received a subconscious telepathic message from Jean, hinting that she was being held captive on the Moon. The X-Men found Stryfe's Moon base and launched an attack. Scott and Jean were rescued, though Cable disappeared with Stryfe into the time-stream. Meanwhile, Sinister opened his container to find nothing inside. It was soon discovered that Essex had opened a Pandora's Box with Stryfe's final revenge on the Summers clan; the mutant infecting Legacy Virus.

Fatal Attractions

Following the assassination attempt, the X-Men seemingly dealt with one crisis after the next without a break. Magneto resurfaced very much alive and with a new lead Acolyte: Exodus, the self proclaimed voice of Magneto. Magneto prepared an all out war on humanity upon learning the Magneto Protocols, a plan to alter the Earth's electromagnetic field to inhibit his powers, had been activated. Devastated by his sister's death by the Legacy virus, Colossus lost faith in Xavier's dream and decided to join Magneto and try his.

The rest of the X-Men stood by their mentor and attacked Magneto on his new space base Avalon when he began sending massive E.M.P. waves around the globe. Jean and Xavier attacked him telepathically, while Wolverine defended Quicksilver to save him from his own father. Wounded and furious, Magneto ripped the adamantium laced onto Logan's skeleton out of his body and left him near death. Unable to deal with his old friend's violence any longer Xavier shut down Magneto's mind, leaving him a vegetable. Colossus stayed with his leader, vowing to care for him until he healed.

As Wolverine left the team following his injury, Sabretooth came to stay at the mansion for rehabilitation. A short time later, Scott and Jean finally married. They spent their honeymoon raising a young Nathan Summers in the far future.

Phalanx Covenant

Not long after, the X-Men faced with the Phalanx. The Phalanx, a techno-organic race bent on ruling the world, took over the X-Mansion and assumed the form of various X-Men. Banshee managed to escape along with the captive Sabretooth, a recovering Emma Frost, and the youngest X-Man Jubilee. Banshee learned the Phalanx were after the next generation of mutants, hoping to experiment and eventually absorb the young mutants into their collective. Sean and Emma saved the targeted young mutants, but only with the sacrifice of the young Blink. The surviving teenage mutants became Generation X and were taught how to use their mutant powers by Banshee and Frost at the Massachusetts Academy.

Legion Quest and the Age of Apocalypse

Around this time, the Blue and Gold squads dissipated into one large X group. Legion woke up from his coma with his fragmented mind completely healed. Wanting to make up for the pain he had caused his father, David Haller planned to travel back in time to kill Magneto; eliminating the greatest threat to human/mutant coexistence and fulfilling his father's dream. Bishop, Storm, Iceman, and Psylocke traveled back in time to stop him, but were defeated. As Legion fired a powerful psi-blast at Magneto, Charles Xavier sacrificed himself to save his friend. With his own father dead, Legion faded away along with the rest of the X-Men. Only Bishop, a temporal anomaly, remained unaffected. In the present day, a crystalline wave emerged from the M'Kraan Crystal and eliminated all of reality.

Legion's altering of the timeline was devastating. Noticing the mutant energies during the battle against Haller, Apocalypse began his world domination a decade earlier than he would've otherwise. Rather than be defeated by X-Factor, Apocalypse and his Horseman conquered all of North America in a world known as the Age of Apocalypse. He erected a citadel on Manhattan Island with breeding pens and ghastly experiments run by Sinister and Dark Beast, a twisted version of Hank McCoy. Humans fled to Europe, and were frequently massacred by Sentinels. In this reality, the X-Men were created by Magneto and acted as freedom fighters. Although they suffered many casualties, the X-Men were able to send Bishop back in time to stop Legion and restore reality to normal. Somehow four Age of Apocalypse individuals crossed over to the normal 616 reality: (X-Man, Sugar Man, Dark Beast, Holocaust), while two (Blink and Sabretooth) joined the dimensional hopping Exiles.

Onslaught

When the Professor shut down Magneto's mind months earlier, Magneto's anger combined with Xavier's repressed negativity resulted in the birth of a psychic being. Lying dormant, Xavier's increased frustration with anti-mutant sentiment, deaths due to the Legacy Virus, and the failing of his own students led him to the breaking point. A young mutant was murdered outside the grounds of the Institute by an angry mob. This final failure of Charles Xavier awakened the near-invulnerable entity: Onslaught.

Concurrently, Rogue discovered the enigmatic Joseph. At first she believed him to be Magneto playing dumb, but realized he was truly amnesiac. Concluding he must be Magneto without any memories, Rogue brought him to the X-Men.

Onslaught Revealed!

Using Xavier's body, Onslaught aimed to turn the human race into a collective. Seeking more power, he absorbed the powerful mutants Franklin Richards and Nate Grey. Erecting a citadel on Manhattan Island and closing it off from the rest of the world, Onslaught used Sentinels and mutant minions to battle the rebelling heroes. A first strike by the combined might of the Avengers, Fantastic Four, and the X-Men freed Xavier from the entity's control and left him as psionic energy contained within special armor.

Jean Grey aided the Hulk in destroying Onslaught's armor. Thor flew into the now unprotected psionic energy being and managed to damage him. Surmising mutants would only empower Onslaught, the other non-mutant members of the Avengers and Fantastic Four followed and successfully destroyed the entity while seemingly sacrificing their own lives. In actuality, Franklin Richards had used his reality warping powers to transport them to a pocket universe. No one discovered the fate of the heroes for a while, and in the meantime anti-mutant hysteria erupted into chaos. Professor Xavier was taken into federal custody.

Operation: Zero Tolerance

The mysterious Bastion used the Onslaught crisis to push his militant anti-mutant agenda to the United States government. With the nations' approval, Bastion's Prime Sentinels hunted down and eliminated mutants across the country under Operation: Zero Tolerance. Cannonball, Wolverine, Cyclops, Jean Grey, and Storm were captured along with members of Generation X, though all managed to escape. The Xavier Institute was completely ransacked, though Cable was successful in protecting the mansion's extensive computer systems.

In New York City, Iceman managed to save Dr. Cecilia Reyes (a mutant with a psioplasmic force field) from termination, though her genetic secret was exposed. The bone-wielding Morlock Marrow and Israeli mutant Sabra joined the two and took the confrontation to Bastion himself. Before the matter could worsen, Senator Kelly was brave enough to put an end to the murder and SHIELD arrived to arrest the madman. A short time later, Bastion was revealed to be the Nimrod/Mastermind robot upon emerging from the Siege Perilous.

Psylocke stands against Shadow King

Meanwhile the other X-Men returned from a space journey to aid the Shi'ar, and Bishop was separated from his teammates along with Deathbird. The rest ended up prisoners of the Nanny, and were eventually brought before Erik the Red (a disguised Magneto) who put Gambit on trial for past crimes. Erik revealed Gambit led the Marauders to the Morlocks during the "Mutant Massacre". Repulsed, Remy's friends abandoned Gambit half-naked in Antarctica. Returning home, the remaining X-Men helped save Cyclops from Bastion's last laugh; a bomb planted in his chest.

Dr. Reyes, Marrow, and Maggott (a mysterious mutant met by Psylocke and Angel with intestines that became giant maggots) stayed at the Institute and joined the X-Men. The Summers left for Alaska so Scott could recover from his wounds, leaving Storm and Wolverine in charge. Rogue, Joseph, Psylocke, and Cannonball also remained. The new team only existed briefly, battling Alpha Flight and extradimensional demons. Shadow King returned to trick Psylocke into giving him control of every mind on Earth, and all telepaths briefly lost their powers. Betsy managed to defeat him, though she could not use her telepathy so as to keep him prisoner.

With the disbanding of Excalibur, former X-Men Shadowcat, Nightcrawler, and Colossus returned to the team and began an era of change. Dr. Reyes set up practice in Salem Center, opting out of the superhero life, while Maggott briefly joined Generation X. The new squad faced a seemingly alternate group of X-Men lead by Professor Xavier, though they were actually created by a sentient Cerebro. Confiscated by Bastion, the nano-technology used to cleanse the Institute gave the mutant locator artificial intelligence. As the X-Men tried to solve the mystery, they found the real Xavier and brought him back to Westchester.

Unexpectedly, Magneto resurfaced once more. Holding the Earth hostage with the planets electromagnetic field in his control, the X-Men traveled to his Antarctica base. Joseph was discovered to have been a clone created by Astra (an old foe of Magneto and member of the original Brotherhood of Evil Mutants), who was supposed to kill his genetic brother but his amnesia got in the way. In the end, Joseph sacrificed himself to stop Magneto. Yet, the United Nations gave into Magneto's demands anyway; Magneto was handed the island of Genosha.

The Twelve

Logan was kidnapped by Apocalypse and forced to fight the savage assassin Sabretooth for the mantle of the Horseman Death. Knowing that he might be able to resist Apocalypse's programming and that Sabretooth would be a very dangerous villain with the support of Apocalypse, Logan fought and defeated his nemesis. As a result, his skeleton again was laced with Adamantium. Meanwhile, a Skrull impostor took Wolverine's place with the X-Men. Under the control of Apocalypse, Wolverine fought the X-Men ferociously in his Death persona. But with the help of his teammates, he eventually broke free from Apocalypse's control.

Apocalypse finally revealed the secret of "The Twelve", a dozen mutants prophesied to defeat him. The X-Men tried to round up the mutants listed as the twelve according to one of Destiny's diaries. With the help of Skrulls and his new Horseman, Apocalypse managed to capture them first and admitted he was the one who started the rumor of mutant saviors; He instead planned to absorb the powers of "The Twelve" to become invincible and unveil the Age of Apocalypse. Using Nate Grey as a vessel for intense energy, the Living Monolith acted as a power conduit transferring the power of the other mutants: Storm, Sunfire, and Iceman (the forces of nature); Magneto and Polaris (opposing magnetic poles); Bishop and Mikhail Rasputin (time and space); Cyclops, Cable, and Jean Grey (familial unit); and Xavier (mind). Apocalypse did not factor in Magneto's weakened powers, which broke the machine used for the power transfer and freed the twelve. Nate Grey was still in danger of being possessed by Apocalypse, so Cyclops decided to free Nate and take his place. With no sign of their former friend, the X-Men destroyed Apocalypse and Scott was presumed dead. Cable joined the X-Men following his father's apparent death.

Mystique attempts to kill Senator Kelly

Soon after, the High Evolutionary was manipulated by Sinister to revert all mutants back into humans. The X-Men temporarily enjoyed normal life, but their powers returned shortly. Six months passed, and the Neo emerged. Claiming to be the next stage in evolution after homo sapiens superior, they were also affected by the High Evolutionary's actions and suffered casualties. The Neo battled the X-Men several times. The Neo eventually yielded to Magneto, who was preparing to wage war on humanity.

Mystique again attempted an assassination along with her Brotherhood, but made her actions much more obvious. The Brotherhood's attack on Senator Kelly was prevented by a dying Pyro, who begged the Senator to stop the circle of violence. Mystique's real intentions were more sinister; she had tampered with the Legacy Virus to release a strain that would only infect regular humans. During the attempt on Kelly's life, Mystique and Sabretooth attacked Muir Island where Dr. MacTaggart had finally discovered a cure of the virus. Mystique neutralized Wolfsbane's powers as she tried to defend her mother, whom Mystique mortally wounded. Mystique even stabbed her own foster daughter Rogue attempting to keep the cure hidden, yet Rogue recovered quickly enough and subdued her. Professor Xavier was able to transfer Moira's knowledge of the virus to his mind before she died. As Cable aided his mentor, a human angry at Senator Kelly's change of stance on mutants shot and killed him.

Beast used Moira's data to create the Legacy Virus cure. Unfortunately, a mutant power signature had to be activated for the cure to disperse around the world. Impatient for Dr. McCoy to discover another way, Colossus injected himself with the cure and activated his mutant power; killing himself but saving the lives of countless mutants.

Jean Grey still couldn't believe Cyclops was truly dead, and went on a journey with Cable to discover the truth. The two eventually found Scott in the Middle East using Jean's rapport with her husband. Cable used his psimitar to cleave Apocalypse's final hold on his father. Returned to his friends, Cyclops became more distant and self-conscious due to insecurities from being possessed.

With the Legacy Virus cured, the mutates on Genosha were healthy enough for Magneto to amass a superpowered army. At a time when Storm was away, leading a squad of the X-Men in search of Destiny's diaries, and many others having left for personal reasons, Magneto went after Xavier. Without enough powerful X-Men around to stop him, Magneto was successful in his attempt to capture Xavier, whom he brought to Genosha on the eve of his invasion. Cyclops and Wolverine infiltrated the island nation as Jean Grey recruited ex-Alpha Flight member Northstar, along with Wraith, Paulie Provenzano, and Sunfire's sister Sunpyre, convincing them to join an interim X-Men team. Dazzler showed up seeking help but also joined the group, and Jean mentally controlled the Acolyte Joanna Cargill to aid the team. On Genosha, the team managed to free Xavier who mentally stopped Magneto from ripping out Wolverine's adamantium a second time. Convinced there was no other way, Logan impaled Magneto.

"X-Men" Go Global

Cover to New X-Men #114

The X-Men were again divided into squads, this time under different circumstances. Not trusting Xavier or anyone else with knowledge of the future of mutantkind, Storm secretly gathered a squad to obtain the prophetic diaries of Destiny. The team left the safety of the Institute and became mobile. Early on, Psylocke was killed and Beast was critically injured by Vargas. Australian siblings Lifeguard and Slipstream later joined in the quest. Eventually the team abandoned the search after realizing the prophecies only came true if they chose to let the diary control their actions.

The "Away Team" of X-Men had their own problems to deal with, confronting Banshee's paramilitary X-Corp, an organization created to patrol the growing mutant population. Sean formed the team in his grief after Moira's death. Mystique was disapproving of his use of some villainous mutants against their will. She infiltrated the X-Corps and slit Banshee's throat, putting an end to the X-Corp. Mutant prostitute Stacy X briefly joined the team after her brothel was destroyed by the mutant hating Church of Humanity. Later, a reformed Juggernaut, a psychotic Polaris, Northstar, and Havok joined the team.

A new nemesis for the X-Men arrived in the form of Cassandra Nova, Xavier's twin sister whom he killed in the womb. The fetal Xavier recognized her as inherently evil, his own personal "mummudrai", and strangled her until she was delivered stillborn. Very powerful, Cassandra remained alive but weak, until decades later when she was finally able to create a psionic body. Cassandra Nova resurfaced in South America and activated a forgotten Master Mold, manufacturing immense Sentinels to attack Genosha. Magneto, alive but paralyzed from Wolverine's attack, could do nothing but watch as the entire island along with sixteen million mutants were exterminated.

Emma Frost appeared at first to be the only survivor due to her sudden mutation of diamond-hard skin. Many mutants around the world began mutating further and gaining new powers. Dr. McCoy labeled them as secondary mutations. Other Secondary Mutations noted were Phoenix's returned telekinesis and Beast's more feline appearance.

Cassandra Nova was brought into custody by Cyclops and Wolverine, but managed to break free at the Xavier Institute and switch bodies with Charles Xavier. In Xavier's body, she shot her previous body to near death. At this point, Emma Frost officially joined the team and the Institute was reopened to students, containing a much larger student body and classes taught by X-Men. On live television, Cassandra Nova, as Xavier, admitted to the world he and all residents at the Institute were mutants, revealing the X-Men's best kept secret. Only the Beast suspected anything was wrong, and Cassandra Nova took control of Beak and had him beat him into a coma before she left on Lilandra's star-ship for the outer reaches of space.

New X-Men #134

Jean Grey assumed the role of Headmistress at the Institute and promptly drove off an attack by the U-Men; humans who graft mutant tissue to themselves. During her defense of the school, Jean manifested the Phoenix raptor. Meanwhile, Cyclops and Emma Frost were captured by John Sublime (leader of the U-Men) as he forced Martha the mutant brain to telepathically subdue the X-Men. Both managed to escape, and a freed Martha manipulated Emma Frost into dropping Sublime off of his skyscraper.

Beast finally awoke from his coma to warn his teammates Xavier's mind has been trapped in Nova's dead body. Chinese healer Xorn accepted an invitation to join the X-Men in time for another bout with Cassandra Nova. After wreaking havoc on the Shi'ar Empire, Cassandra Nova fooled the Imperial Guard into attacking the Institute. The X-Men were weakened by nano-sentinels that had been planted by Cassandra Nova, but were cured by Xorn. Jean was able to fragment Xavier's mind with the help of Cerebra, and placed a tiny part in every mutant mind on Earth. As Nova returned to the school and was about to use the mutant locater to eliminate every mutant on Earth, Xavier's mind instead reformed and resumed control of his body. Once again pure psionic energy, Emma Frost tricked Cassandra Nova into entering the body of the synthezoid Imperial Guard member Stuff. Trapped, Cassandra was reeducated and unable to flee.

Without purpose, the X-Treme team returned to the Mansion (minus Slipstream, Lifeguard, and Thunderbird). Rogue and Gambit took a leave of absence after their powers were lost. Conflict with Emma and Xavier over the fate of an accused mutant killer quickly drove them away again. Cannonball joined the team before they faced Reverend Stryker and Lady Deathstrike. Storm was soon asked by the United Nations to lead the X-Treme Sanctions Executive (XSE), a government sanctioned and peaceful paramilitary force responsible for policing relations between humans and mutants. The remaining X-Treme members joined along with Wolverine and Magma. Rachel Summers was rescued from Elias Bogan by the XSE, and also joined.

With his secret out, Xavier changed his strategy and created the X-Corporation. With headquarters in many major cities around the globe, the new organization acted in more proactive ways to improve human-mutant relations. Unfortunately, the Paris X-Corp had to stop the menace of an experiment of the Weapon Plus program, with Darkstar dying in the process.

Unrest slowly took over the mansion, when Quentin Quire and his Omega Gang boldly pushed Magneto's policies during "Open Day" as humans visited the Institute. Becoming violent under the influence of the drug Kick, the Omega Gang attacked humans and the intruding X-Men. Sophie Cuckoo, one of Emma's telepathic quintet protégé Stepford Cuckoos, perished using Cerebra to stop the Gang's rampage. The grief of Sophie's sister, Esme Cuckoo, led her to reveal Emma and Scott's psychic affair and shot Frost while she was in her diamond form; splintering her into thousands of pieces. Sage and Bishop's investigation found the culprit, but Esme fled the Institute. Although furious at Emma Frost for becoming close to her husband, Jean displayed vast telekinetic power and reformed Emma's broken body.

Cover to New X-Men #150

Xorn pushed Magneto's theories on his Special Class of young mutants. Disapproving, Xavier confronted him only to discover Xorn was Magneto in disguise. Trapping Wolverine and Jean Grey on the remnants of Asteroid M and incapacitating the other X-Men, he destroyed the Institute and took over Manhattan. Moving closer to the Sun, Wolverine killed Jean so she could unlock the power of Phoenix. Cyclops led a last ditch assault on Magneto and his allies, and Phoenix returned in time to defeat the mad mutant. On several occasions, they noted that something was odd about Magneto, which infuriated him. He made various threats such as ripping out Wolverine's adamantium again as 'proof' that he really was Magneto. Knowing he was defeated, Magneto used his stored energy to give Phoenix a stroke 'on the planetary level'. Wolverine decapitated Magneto in a berserker rage as Jean Grey died in the arms of her husband.

With Jean Grey dead, Cyclops rejected Emma's advances and left the Institute in Beast's hands. Hank couldn't deal with the pressure of running the school by himself, and began taking Kick to deal with the stress. The drug Kick turned out to be an aerosol form of Sublime, an ancient parasitic bacteria that took the human form of John Sublime. Infected by Sublime, Beast created a chain reaction that destroyed civilization. Years later, Jean was reborn as the Phoenix. Although first controlled by Beast, Wolverine and the remaining X-Men restored her memory. After eradicating Sublime, White Phoenix traveled through the time-stream and pushed Scott to embrace Emma's advances, averting the disastrous future.

Scott Summers and Emma Frost became co-headmasters of the rebuilt Xavier Institute. The returning students were arranged into squads led by other X-Men. Professor Xavier left for Genosha, and began rebuilding the nation with the help of Magneto; "Xorneto" had been an impostor after all. The XSE made the Institute their headquarters, while the other X-Teams were rearranged.

The XSE battled the Fury, Savage Land mutates, and a new Hellfire Club. Sage left the team to aid Sunspot in controlling the Club, hoping to prevent Roberto becoming corrupted by power. Cannonball soon rejoined X-Force after recuperating from injuries sustained battling the Fury. Psylocke suddenly appeared alive and well in the exact spot she was murdered. Although surprised, she was welcomed back to the team.

The real Xorn briefly joined the X-Team, and helped battle the latest incarnation of the Brotherhood. Towards the end, the Brotherhood members were sucked into the black hole within his helmet. Juggernaut, distraught after the murder of his young friend Sammy by Black Tom Cassidy, willingly entered the void to look after the confused Nocturne (TJ Wagner).

Cover to Astonishing X-Men #1

Cyclops' team ditched the leather costumes to bring back spandex, trying to amaze humans and appear more like superheroes. The team faced the extraterrestrial threat of Ord and Genetech's mutant cure. Shadowcat discovered Colossus very much alive within Genetech's Research Facility, and he rejoined his friends. Later, the Danger Room became sentient and tried to murder the X-Men.

Decimation

The Scarlet Witch lost control of her reality warping powers and destroyed the Avengers in the process. Magneto took his comatose daughter to Genosha, though neither Xavier nor Doctor Strange could help her. With the combined New Avengers and "Astonishing" X-Men arriving on Genosha to deal with Wanda's increasingly worrisome actions, Quicksilver manipulated his sister to create the House of M; a reality where mutants ruled over baseline humans.

Though the world seemed perfect, Wolverine began to suspect something was wrong. With the help of young mutant Layla Miller, the X-Men and other heroes remembered their past lives. The enlightened heroes commenced an attack on Magneto's Genoshan headquarters and tried to find the missing Professor Xavier. Quicksilver's betrayal was revealed, and Magneto nearly killed him. Angry how her mutant heritage and her father's choices nearly destroyed her family, the Scarlet Witch uttered three words to solve what had happened: No More Mutants.

The world returned as it was, with some heroes remembering the House of M. Immediately, Emma Frost realized something was wrong and used Cerebra to locate mutants. Wanda's powers had erased the X-Gene from many mutants, drastically reducing the homo sapiens superior population from millions down to an estimated 198. Among the depowered were Magneto, Quicksilver, Scarlet Witch, Chamber, Jubilee, Blob, and Beak. Other consequences included Wolverine remembering his past and Professor Xavier being nowhere to be found.

Immediately, the Xavier Institute became a sanctuary for mutants who had nowhere else to turn. Old enemies such as Arclight and Scalphunter joined allies like Outlaw and Erg among the powered mutants who sought refuge. Emma Frost forced the depowered students and faculty to leave the Institute, including Danielle Moonstar. Afraid of violence breaking out, Valerie Cooper dispatched Sentinel Squad O*N*E to protect the swelling population at the X-Mansion. The X-Corp branch in Paris was bombed, causing the other branches to shut down. A group of rabid mutant haters, the Sapien League, attacked the school, declaring that the events were a 'sign' and that they must kill the remaining mutants.

At a time when the X-Men were needed the most, a few of their oldest members left the fold. Storm decided to stay in Africa to aid desperate mutants.

Apocalypse returned with Horsemen that were formerly X-Men or allies of the group. He planned to eliminate most of humankind and have the surviving populations fight each other to the death. The X-Men reluctantly worked together with ONE against the threat.

Rachel Summers and her teammates found themselves battling Shi'ar sent to eliminate the Greys, in order to eliminate anyone in that bloodline so the Phoenix force would not pass on to them once they managed to kill the current one holding it.[211] They were then whisked away by Jamie Braddock to battle a cosmic threat.

A mysterious mutant, Vulcan returned to Earth, revealing himself to be Cyclops and Havok's long lost brother. With him came a shocking revelation about Krakoa, the Summers family, a 'lost' team of X-Men, and Professor Xavier's current status. These revelations also cost Banshee his life.

As the Superhuman Registration Act passed, what was to be done with the remaining mutants living in the United States came into question. Ms. Marvel and Tony Stark attempted to recruit the X-men into the Act, but were quickly turned down when Emma Frost reminded them of how when mutants died by the hands of Sentinels in Genosha and various other genocidal events in their history, the super heroes had turned their backs. Through negotiations with Valerie Cooper and the U.S. Government, mutants were not required to register under the Superhuman Registration Act.

New Teams

X-Men #194

Rogue was assigned her own team to make. She chose Cannonball, Iceman, and Mystique. When they rescued Karima and Lady Mastermind, and when Cable and Sabretooth came to the institute, they joined the team as well. They battled the Children of the Vault, Hecatomb, Pandemic, and the Marauders which ended the team. With Cable believed dead, Sabretooth escaped, Cannonball in a catatonic state, Mystique and Lady Mastermind joining the Marauders, Karima possessed by Malice, and Rogue kidnapped by the Marauders and almost dead, Iceman was the only member left.

Uncanny X-Men #475

Professor X recruited Rachel Summers, Nightcrawler, Warpath, Darwin, Havok and Polaris to participate in a space mission to stop Vulcan from unleashing his powers on the Shi'ar empire. Vulcan revived Emperor D'Ken and married Deathbird. Later, he killed D'Ken and proclaimed himself leader of the Shi'ar Empire. Alex witnessed as Vulcan murdered their father, Christopher Summers. Alex, Lorna, and Rachel Summers stayed in space, joining the Starjammers to lead the resistance against Vulcan and his wife.

The first mutant birth occurred since M-Day. The mutant was so powerful, it blew out Cerebra and most of the telepaths at the X-mansion. The X-men jumped to the Alaskan town of the mutant's birth to find that the Purifiers and Marauders had beaten them to it. The entire mutant population was now fighting to either save or kill the first mutant baby. Ultimately, Cyclops agreed to hand the baby over to Cable so he could take her to the future where he could protect her. Bishop betrayed the X-Men and attempted to kill the child. He accidentally shot Xavier in the head while aiming for the baby.

With the X-Men disbanded and the X-mansion completely destroyed, Beast returned to destroy the last remaining records of the X-Men and its students along with recovering the mutant known as No-girl. Professor X was actually very much alive thanks to the intervention of the remaining powered Acolytes. However, his mind was badly damaged and only had contact with the X-Man Gambit.

San Francisco

The X-Men disbanded as they no longer had a leader and their teams had literally fought to the death, suffering heavy casualties. X-Force and X-Factor relocated, the New X-Men dissolved and the students sent home, while a new Young X-Men team was established. With members of the team suddenly falling out of contact, Cyclops and Emma Frost investigated the odd events happening in San Francisco. A mutant known as Goddess manipulated the entire city into thinking it was living in the 1960s. Once the few X-men that were present (Angel, Hepzibah, Iceman, Warpath, Emma Frost and Cyclops), subdued the Goddess, they coincidentally rescued the mayor of the city who offered the X-Men a safe haven.

On the out skirts of the city, Cyclops along with Storm, Beast and various other X-Men re-established and built a home base for the X-men and ALL mutant kind. After a brief battle with a artificially re-powered Magneto, Cyclops, through Emma Frost's telepathic powers, sent a message to all mutants around the world that they now had a place they could call home in San Francisco, re-creating the X-Men and Xavier's dream once again. After the X-Men fought off the Skrull Invasion the X-Men marched through the streets, welcomed and thanked by the people of San Francisco.

The Californian government proposed a ban on mutant reproduction to control the mutant population. The proponent of the legislation was Simon Trask, brother of Bolivar Trask, creator of the Sentinels, and the anti-mutant group known as Humanity Now. Trask led his supporters on a march across the state and when they arrived in San Francisco, they met many of the new mutants in the city including Lorelei, Hellion, Toad, and various other X-men and the city erupted into a riot. Emma Frost, part of Norman Osborn's Cabal, was asked by Osbourn to keep the mutant population under control, but she failed to do so, the Dark Avengers and H.A.M.M.E.R. soldiers were deployed to quell the riots. As a result, Beast was arrested and detained. Osborn also contacted Frost and placed her in charge of her very own group of X-men, while simultaneously publicly having a wheel-chair bound Charles Xavier ask Scott Summers to surrender for arrest.

Cyclops resisted arrest and retreated back to Graymalkin Industries along with the rest of the X-men as they were forced to battle members of the Dark Avengers. Meanwhile, Emma Frost was introduced to her new team of Dark X-men: Cloak, Dagger, Mimic, Daken, Omega, and Mystique (posing as Charles Xavier for Osborn's agenda) and per Frost's request, the Atlantean Namor. Frost's X-Men responded to a riot led by her former pupil Hellion, following a curfew Osborn put into effect.

Beast was imprisoned and the real Charles Xavier contacted him, stating that the prison they were in (H.A.M.M.E.R.'s west coast base, a renovated Alcatraz Island) was a place where they planned on depowering mutants. The head of the project: Dark Beast, Beast's polar opposite.

Second Coming

Cable and Hope returned to the present, prompting Bastion to order his allies Stephen Lang, Bolivar Trask, William Stryker, Graydon Creed and Cameron Hodge to kill her. The X-Men came to their aid. Rogue and Nightcrawler were able to escape with Hope. Bastion brutally beat Rogue. Just as Bastion extended his arm to kill Hope, Nightcrawler teleported between them and was impaled through the chest. Nightcrawler teleported Hope to Utopia where he died.

During the months leading up to Hope's return a large energy dome was built over the Bay Area to cut off the X-Men from escape or help. Once the dome was activated, Bastion opened a dimensional portal from his home reality to allow in more Nimrod-Series Sentinels. Cable used his last time jump to take X-Force to the future where they shut down all of the Nimrods in both the present and future. Their mission completed, attempted to us Bastion's time portal to return to the present. Unfortunately, only inorganic matter was able to pass through the portal. With no other alternative, Cable sacrificed himself to hold the portal open and allow the others to return home. After witnessing Cable's sacrifice, Hope was able to draw on the mutant powers of the X-Men around her and single-handedly destroyed Lang and Creed. With the assistance of the X-Men, she eradicated Bastion and shattered the dome surrounding the city.

Generation Hope

Cerebra found five new mutants who had appeared around the globe. Hope and the X-Men raced around the world to save these young mutants. The Lights are the hope for the future of the mutant race. Under the direction of Hope and with the consent of Cyclops, the Lights began training as a rescue team for any other new mutant manifestations.

The Children's Crusade

When the Young Avengers found the Scarlet Witch and restored her memories, they convinced her to start re-powering former mutants. After she successfully restored the powers of Julio Richter, the X-Men arrived at the Avengers Mansion to take her into custody. The Scarlet Witch decided to give the X-Men what they want; more mutants. A confrontation arose between the X-Men, Avengers, and X-Factor. The fight was cut short when Wanda proceeds to put them all to sleep.[91]. The X-Men eventually agreed to leave Wanda alone but they stated that Wanda would never be forgiven for what she did to the mutant people.

After Kid Omega's attack on the United Nations, anti-mutant sentiment began to rise and world leaders began reactivating Sentinels.[212] Meanwhile, in San Francisco, Mayor Sinclair expedite the grand opening of the Mutant History Museum. Unfortunately, Kade Kilgore and his Hellfire Club used this opportunity to attack the X-Men. Despite Wolverine's objections, Cyclops ordered Idie to stop the Hellfire Club by killing them. These event lead to a giant super-Sentinel nearly destroying Utopia, and Cyclops and Wolverine parting ways because of philosophical differences. The difference ended up being more than could be reconciled.[213][214]

Sides are taken in wake of the Schism

The one thing Cyclops and Wolverine could agree on was Idie would be better off away from Utopia, so despite Hope's objections Idie left with Wolverine and others to resettle Westchester.[215][216] Because of the split, each X-Man was forced to choose to remain on Utopia with Cyclops or reopen the mutant school in Westchester with Wolverine.[217][215]

The return of the Hellfire Club

Wolverine founded the Jean Grey School for Higher Learning. On their school's first day the school was attacked by the same Hellfire Club that orchestrated the X-Men's schism. They attacked using a variety of methods: an army of Frankenstein monsters; a Krakoa (which the school had been built upon); and the state inspectors, who were transformed into a 'Sauron' and a 'Wendigo'. They were saved by none other than Kid Omega, who telepathically accessed the Krakoa's mind. He discovered that it was not the original Krakoa but a grandchild of it; furthermore, it was a mutant. Having been tortured his whole life, Quire's telepathic contact represented its first friendly interaction. Krakoa then opened its thoughts to Rachel Grey,

The Jean Grey School victorious.

apologizing and hoping to become an X-Man. With their plans ruined, the Hellfire Club fled. Kade Kilgore was later served papers by Matt Murdock, having been sued by Wolverine. Not content, the Hellfire Club contracted Sabretooth to torment the School.[218]

When Nova crashed in New York, he gave the Avengers a cryptic warning: "It's Coming". Thanks to this, the Avengers discovered that the Phoenix Force was burning a path through the universe on its way to Earth. Meanwhile, Cyclops sparred with Hope repeatedly, training her harshly. When she asked why, he refused to give a straight answer, and Hope flared up with the power of the Phoenix, which the Avengers detected. Captain America consulted Wolverine, who told him of Hope Summers.

The first blow is struck.

Cyclops became convinced that the coming of the Phoenix Force would herald the rebirth of mutantkind as a species. Captain America saw it as the herald of Earth's destruction, and so arrived on Utopia with the intent of taking Hope into protective custody. After arguing, Cyclops refused Captain America, blasting him into the ocean. In response, a S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier uncloaked itself and the Avengers began an invasion of Utopia.[219]

Cyclops feigned a surrender to the Avengers and teleported out of Utopia together with several powerful X-Men, thus gaining a head start in the search for Hope. He contacted his daughter Rachel Summers and convinced her to feed the Avengers false information in order to throw them off of Hope's trail. Since Hope had scattered her signal, thus appearing to be in several places at once, various teams of X-Men traveled around the world to find her, facing Avengers on the spots. Cyclops later traveled to the Jean Grey Institute in order to recruit more people for the war against the Avengers, managing to Rachel Summers, Angel and Iceman among various others. After finding out that Hope was on the Blue Area of the Moon, the X-Men pursued her and encountered the Avengers there. Before a fight broke out between the two groups, and a badly injured Thor crashed onto the Moon, followed by the Phoenix Force.

The hosts of the Phoenix Force.

The Avengers and X-Men descended into a brawl. The power of the Phoenix increased within Hope and she found herself unable to control it. Desperate, she asked Wolverine to kill her. However, Cyclops prevented him from doing so. As the Phoenix descended on the moon, Iron Man used a special suit to try to destroy the Phoenix. He only managed to splinter it, and it took the five other X-Men present as hosts; Namor, Cyclops, Emma Frost, Magik and Colossus.[220]

The schism between the X-Men was ended and the five hosts and the rest of the X-Men went about making the world a better place by stopping wars, destroying weapons and providing free food, water and energy for the entire world. The Avengers continued to oppose them however by staging guerrilla attacks against X-Men and the Phoenixes. After kidnapping Transonic and convincing Hope to join them, Namor lost his patience and attacked the Avengers in their homebase, Wakanda. The Avengers narrowly managed to defeat him at the cost of great damage to themselves and Wakanda. After being defeated, Namor's portion of the Phoenix Force left him for the other 4 hosts.

Now having even more power to control, some of the Phoenixes began acting erratically and showed signs of losing control. After the Avengers staged a prison breakout for their fellows, Colossus and Magik lost their portions after knocking each other out over an argument regarding the control of their powers. This left Emma and Cyclops the sole hosts. Emma began to rapidly lose control and started to kill people who were guilty of committing heinous crimes against mutants. She also ruled the Utopian X-Men with an iron fist, threatening those who's thoughts displeased her which prompted many of them to seek sanctuary in the Jean Grey School.

The Avengers were attacked by Cyclops who now possessed half of the Phoenix. He made quick work of anyone that opposed him but was defeated by Hope who in an act of desperation combined the powers of the Iron Fist, Scarlet Witch's chaos magic and Shao-Lao's flames to teleport Cyclops to the Moon. Several X-Men then teamed up with the Avengers after realizing that Cyclops and Emma had completely lost control. Together they attacked Cyclops and Emma and gained the upper hand until Cyclops was forced to take the final piece of the Phoenix from Emma, making him the sole host. The complete Phoenix proved too much and finally turned him into Dark Phoenix upon which he killed Professor X after Xavier attempted to stop him.

The X-Men fought Cyclops around the world with the help of the Avengers and Nova, while trying to contain the chaos the Phoenix Force produced around Earth. After regaining his composure for a moment, Cyclops begged the Scarlet Witch and Hope to kill him, but together, all three of them managed to rid Cyclops of the Phoenix, which possessed Hope instead. Hope wanted to use the power to do what the Phoenix Five could not, and create a real Utopia on Earth, but the Scarlet Witch reminded her why the Phoenix chose her in the first place. Together they dissipated the Phoenix and used it to create new mutants.

Cyclops is brought into custody and Captain America visits him in his cell. Cyclops accepts full responsibility for everything that happened and asks Rogers not to hunt the X-Men that went missing after their conflict. After Cyclops learns that mutantkind has been reborn he states that while he regrets the destruction he caused and the death of Professor Xavier, he would do it all again to save mutantkind. Captain America accepted that the Avengers should have done more to help mutants instead of standing by while the world hated them, and promised Cyclops he'd change that.

The Mutant Rebellion and the Arrival of the Original Five

While Cyclops was initially content to stay in prison in order to protect his Extinction Team teammates, as well as fulfill his intent to become either a martyr or political prisoner, his opinions soon changed after his fellow mutant inmate and friend Jake was murdered in jail and after receiving a visit from Mr. Sinister who goaded Cyclops by telling him that he was free to do whatever he wanted now and only he (Cyclops) could stop him. Cyclops sent a message to Magneto who staged a prison breakout for him. Now leading Magneto and Magik, Cyclops vowed to continue fighting to protect mutantkind. He began staging various operations to rescue new mutants in trouble with the authorities and offered to train them in the use of their powers and gave them a place in his rebellion. While rescuing Emma Frost, Cyclops and Magneto both ran into problems with their powers. Emma revealed she was going through something similar and told them it was because of the Phoenix which had broken their powers.

Meanwhile, Beast began suffering from another mutation which was threatening to kill him. Distressed by Cyclops' more extreme stance against anti-mutantism, which Beast believed would antagonize humanity and threaten the future of mutantkind, Beast resolved to attempt to set thing right. Using a time-machine he had constructed based on the designs of Reed Richards and Doctor Doom, Beast traveled back to the time of the original X-Men and brought the young versions of Cyclops, Jean Grey, Angel, Iceman and himself to the present. The Original X-Men were detained by the present X-Men at the school, but escaped to go and find the present Cyclops, whom Beast had told them had killed Professor Xavier. Finding him in the middle of a mission, Jean Grey's telepathy manifested early and she lost control of her powers, flinging Cyclops away and causing him to lose his visor. Coupled with his loss of control over his powers, this led Cyclops to inadvertently begin firing optic blasts wildly, which the Original X-Men mistook as him trying to attack them. They fought back, but were dispatched by Magneto who rescued Cyclops and had Magik extract them.

While many present X-Men, chiefly Wolverine wanted to send the Original X-Men back to their own time, but after young Beast saved the present version, the Original X-Men voted on whether to remain or not, with only Angel voting against it and were granted stay in the present under the watchful eye of Kitty Pryde.

After Beast brought back the Past X-Men, they have attracted the attention of some not so welcome visitors, the Brotherhood. [221] Posing as the Future X-Men, they convince most of the X-Men that something terrible happens in the future and it is all because they brought back the past X-Men. Past Jean, frightened by the mysterious teams blocking of her telepathic powers, convinced Past Cyclops to run away with her and not be sent home. [222] After a huge fight between the mutants, Magik is still in disbelief and goes off with past Beast and Iceman for answers. [223] There answers are met when the real Future X-Men appear and explain to them what happened. Reluctantly, the future X-Men go to the present, trying to stop their time's Brotherhood without causing any more fractures in the space-time continuum.[224]

Future, past, and present X-Men fighting the future Brotherhood.

Once the Brotherhood realize they cannot send the past X-Men back for some unknown reason, they decide to try and re-write history by cornering all X-Men and having S.H.I.E.L.D. fire all their weapons at them. [225] After a huge battle between mutants, Xorn lost control of her mutant power and exploded giving both teams a chance to evacuate. As the future X-Men left by saying good bye to their past friends, Kymera, Storm's daughter, decided to stay and keep a look out for the Brotherhood in this timeline. Kitty Pryde along with all of the past X-Men were disappointed in how the X-Men reacted to this crisis and liked how Cyclops' X-Men handled the situation much better. With that they left to join their team of X-Men.[226]

After a time, Wolverine died, making Storm the sole Headmistress of the Jean Grey School and leader of the X-Men.

AXIS

After briefly teaming up with the Avengers in Genosha to take down the Red Skull, who was empowered by the brain of Charles Xavier, the Jean Grey School's X-Men and Cyclops' X-Men became one once more. But due to the inversion spell used to defeat the Skull, the moral axis of the X-Men present in the island was inverted, and the now-evil leaders of the X-Men waged a war against humanity, and the Avengers.[227]

The inverted X-Men planned on using a gene bomb to kill everyone on the Earth who wasn't a mutant.[228] The Astonishing Avengers tried to stop them, and even though they were defeated in combat,[229] managed to prevent the bomb from fulfilling its purpose.[230] The Axis, the group of inverted Avengers, arrived to New York to kill the inverted X-Men. During the fight, a reinversion spell was cast by Doctor Doom and the Scarlet Witch, with the help of the inverted Red Skull, turning almost everybody back to normal. After the event, Cyclops' X-Men returned to Alberta, Canada.[231]

The M-Pox Crisis

The entirety of mutantkind found itself at a crossroads once more when it was discovered that the clouds made of Terrigen Mists that roamed the atmosphere after being released months earlier by Inhuman king Black Bolt were hazardous to mutants, afflicting any mutant that entered in contact with them with an illness known as M-Pox.

The first people to discover the toxicity of the Terrigen Cloud were Cyclops' X-Men when they heeded a call for help from Muir Island, which had been swept by the mists. As soon as he entered in contact with the residual mists, Cyclops fell ill and died almost instantly of M-Pox. Fueled by rage and unwilling to let Scott's legacy end there, Emma Frost revealed to the world the hazard of the Terrigen Clouds and destroyed one of them with the help of Alchemy. She also confronted the Inhumans, all while projecting a mental image of Cyclops to keep his death a secret. Black Bolt "killed" Cyclops, fulfilling Emma's wish to see him die for his cause and transcend his mortality to become an idea.[86]

Frost's actions in the name of Cyclops were not well received by the world, leading mutants to become prosecuted and hated once again, and prompting the X-Men to disband. Emma's manipulations also raised tensions between Inhumans and mutants. With her people in constant danger, Storm started working on a sanctuary called X-Haven,[232] which consisted of the entirety of the Jean Grey School being moved to the realm of Limbo with the help of Doctor Strange and other magic users.[233] However, she realized that mutants couldn't simply hide, so in order to show that mutants had a place in the world, she rebuilt the X-Men.[232]

Inhumans vs. X-Men

When Beast, who had been working with the Inhumans to find a cure to M-Pox, discovered that the remaining cloud was weeks from reaching a saturation point, which would've caused it to become fully assimilated into the atmosphere, rendering the Earth completely uninhabitable for mutants, he shared this information first with the X-Men. Believing that the Inhumans would refuse to destroy the cloud even at this moment, the different factions of the X-Men united to launch a coordinated attack on Inhuman key players in order to neutralize them long enough, trapping most of them in Limbo, to use a machine created by Forge to absorb and destroy the Terrigen.[234] Two of the newest Inumans, Iso and Inferno, managed to escape the assault on New Attilan[235] and destroy Forge's machine, taking him hostage. The two young Inhumans then called reinforcements in the form of other NuHumans, including Mosaic,[236] who used his powers to infiltrate Muir Island and learn the X-Men's reason behind their attack, later reporting that to his peers,[237] which prompted the NuHumans to join forces with Forge to come up with a new solution.

The NuHumans then travelled to Iceland, the latest location of the Terrigen Cloud, but were soon confronted by the X-Men, who had no idea of their plans.[238] The royal Inhumans joined the brawl, having escaped from Limbo and regrouped. The battle was interrupted when Ennilux arrived, having provided Forge and Moon Girl with the resources to build the machine necessary to eliminate the Terrigen Cloud. Medusa was notified of what was at stake and given the trigger to activate the device. In spite of what the destruction of the Terrigen Cloud meant for Inhumans, Medusa activated the machine, destroying the Cloud and ending the threat of the M-Pox.

Cyclops' time-displaced younger self exposed Emma's lies regarding the events surrounding his older self's death,[239] having learned of this as a consequence of being possessed by Mosaic back in Muir Island, and gaining access to residual memories the body-usurper Inhuman had of his previous victim, Magneto, with whom Emma had shared the truth.[240] Having being driven mad by Cyclops' death at the hands of the Mists, Emma still insisted on fighting the Inhumans, even using reprogrammed Sentinels to massacre the Ennilux and attack the rest. The Inhumans and the X-Men joined forces and eventually managed to take Frost and her Sentinels down, but she managed to escape.[239]

In the wake of the war, Storm chose to pass the reins of leadership to Kitty Pryde, who had recently returned to Earth after working with the Guardians of the Galaxy. Kitty decided to take advantage of the doors to the future opened for mutantkind to build on Xavier's dream once again and build a legacy of heroes and protectors of the world. As part of this plan, Kitty had the mansion moved from Limbo to the middle of Central Park to help the exposure of the X-Men.[241]

Age of X-Man and the Return of Cyclops

Cyclops and the current X-Men

At some point Cyclops returned to life and after the younger X-Men returned to the past and the rest of the team disappeared after their confrontation with X-Man,[242] he went looking to restart the team with whoever was left and came into contact with Wolverine.[243][244]

Paraphernalia

Equipment:Danger Room, Cerebro, Cerebra, Image Inducer Cyber-glasses. Although most X-Men choose to individualize their costumes, standard blue and gold uniforms are available.Transportation:X-Men Blackbird; the original is still in use and Forge has constructed additional models for each team. An earlier version was the X-Men Stratojet and before that the X-Copter.Weapons: No standard weaponry. Some members have at times carried weapons as suited their tastes such as (Longshot's throwing knives, Cable's futuristic firearms, Forge's self-made firearms, Deadpool's high-powered guns and katanas, and Psylocke's Katana, Storm Knife). Wolverine additionally is incapable of removing his Adamantium claws under normal circumstances.

Notes

It should be noted that bigotry toward Mutants in the world of the X-Men has long been seen as a metaphor for all kinds of prejudice towards others occurring in the real world. Professor Xavier has been equated to peaceful civil rights activists like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Conversely, Magneto could be compared to more violent activists like Malcolm X. Recently, Storm has been forming her own perspective that acts as a middle ground and is analogous to opinions of moderate progressive activists.

According to the Angel, the founding X-Men took an oath to help anyone who was in trouble. [23] He invoked the oath to convince his teammates to help out a mysterious mutant who was under attack by an angry mob. The Angel was unaware that the attack victim was the Toad in disguise. [23]

Trivia

X-Men co-creator Stan Lee originally intended for the team to be called "The Mutants." Publisher Martin Goodman shot down the idea, allegedly arguing readers wouldn't know what a mutant was.[246]

The X-Men celebrated their 1st anniversary since classes began with a birthday cake. [22]